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Re: Topband: How do we get more people on Topband?

To: W4EF@dellroy.com
Subject: Re: Topband: How do we get more people on Topband?
From: alan eshleman <oakame@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:21:35 -0700 (PDT)
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Thanks for the comments, Mike and others.  I am heartened to hear how well some 
Top-banders are doing even with space restrictions.  As you imply, there's a 
huge East Coast-West Coast divide when it comes to Top Band.  

I used to fume when I saw spots from east-of-the-Mississippi stations crowing 
about how they worked an EU station with "70 watts and a dipole".  That's 
roughly as difficult as working JA from California--in other words, no big 
deal. The reason, of course, is that EU is a polar path from here.  It's 
probably just as difficult to work Zone 5 as it is to work Zone 25 from this 
coast.

This is only my second season on Top Band.  I have much to learn.  The first 
time I did any Top Band operation was on the T33C expedition back in 2004.

Do any of you think that the dearth of sunspots may have increased Top Band 
activity?  I have no frame of reference.

73, Alan/K6SRZ

--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Michael Tope <W4EF@dellroy.com> wrote:

> From: Michael Tope <W4EF@dellroy.com>
> Subject: Re: Topband: How do we get more people on Topband?
> To: "alan eshleman" <oakame@yahoo.com>
> Cc: topband@lists.contesting.com, "Brian Moran" <brianmo@yahoo.com>
> Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 12:05 PM
> alan eshleman wrote:
> 
> >Top Band DXing requires real estate.  It's
> possible to get on 160 with a compromise antenna and 100
> watts and work DX every now and then, but the full Top Band
> experience requires space for antennas and an amplifier.
> >
> >I did not get serious about 160 until I moved from my
> postage-stamp-sized lot in Berkeley to my new QTH in
> semi-rural Sonoma County.  I have a little over an
> acre, surrounded by vineyards and pasture land.
> >
> >>From Berkeley, I worked KH6, JA, and a few other
> Pacific islands, but never even heard EU above the city
> noise.  Since moving, I have 111 DXCC entities worked
> on Top Band (though some operators, who shall be nameless,
> are slow to send the cards).
> >
> >I think we're dinosaurs, albeit happy dinosaurs. 
> Perhaps others can say something more encouraging.
> >
> >73,
> >
> >Alan/K6SRZ
> >
>
> >
> BTW, Alan, I should add that the best encouragement that
> folks like 
> yourself who are blessed with a better than average
> locations can 
> provide is to be active on the band. It is folks like
> yourself on the 
> other side of the ponds that gives us small lot city
> dwellers a shot at 
> new DX countries. Likewise, big guns on our side of the
> pond give little 
> guns in other parts of the world an opportunity to work the
> US west 
> coast. I think I remember reading that W8JI had logged over
> 500 unique 
> JA callsigns from Georgia on topband. Odds are a large
> percentage of 
> those 500 JA's were little guns strapped with compromise
> antennas.
> 
> 73, Mike W4EF.................
> 
> 


      
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